[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Although elated by his gesture, the archer regretted not being able to retrieve his arrows.The shafts cost him 105.6d.each and the War Office had no financial responsibility for such ammunition!On the 27th of May 1940, whilst in command of a mixed force holding the village of L’Epinette, near Bethune, during the retreat to Dunkirk, Captain Churchill, who had been slightly wounded on the 25th, became the only European for centuries who, in the action of war, had killed an enemy with the longbow.Climbing into the loft of a small granary, through a vertical opening in one wall, normally used for hauling up sacks of grain, he saw, some thirty yards away, five German soldiers sheltering behind the wall but in clear view of the granary.Quickly and quietly Captain Churchill fetched up two infantrymen and instructed them to open rapid fire on the enemy but not to pull the trigger until he had loosed an arrow at the centre man.Captain Churchill lifted his bow, took careful aim and loosed the shaft.At the same time as the bow string twanged, the air was shattered by the rapid fire of the two infantrymen.Captain Churchill was delighted to see his arrow strike the centre German in the left of the chest and penetrate his body; the remaining Germans of the party slumped to the dusty ground.With the idea of retrieving his arrow by pushing or pulling it through the wound, Captain Churchill swiftly ran to the body but was unable to extract the shaft.In his haste he broke the arrow, leaving its barbed head in the German’s body.At this moment enemy machine-gun fire was opened down the line of the road and everyone dived for cover.Sheet 21 of the War Diary of the 4th Infantry Brigade, dated the 30th of May 1940, bears the following paragraph:‘One of the most reassuring sights of the embarkation was the sight of Captain Churchill passing down the beach with his bows and arrows! His actions in the Saar with his arrows are known to many and his disappointment at not having had the chance to keep in practice had tried him sorely.His high example and his great work with his machine-guns were a great help to the 4th Infantry Brigade.’Five years before the first atomic bomb exploded and nearly 600 years after the Battle of Crécy an English archer had incongruously and briefly returned to the ancient battlefields of France.BibliographyTechnical SourcesAkerman, Archaelogia (i860), Vol.XVIIAscham, Roger, Toxophilus (sixteenth century)Ascham, Roger, The Treatise on the Bow (1545)Ashdown, Charles, Armour and Weapons in the Middle Ages (1925)Ashdown, Charles, British and Foreign Arms and Armour (1909)Barwick, A Brief Discourse {Firearms and Bows) (1594)Blair, Claud, European Armour (1958)Burke, Edmund, The History of Archery (1958)Demarin, Auguste, Weapons of War (1870)Edwards, C.B.and Heath, E.G., In Pursuit of Archery (1962)Elmer, R.P., Archery (1933)Ffoulkes, Charles, Armour and Weapons (1909)Ffoulkes, Charles, Arms and Armaments (1945)Ford, H.A., Archery, Its Theory and Practice (1856)Gordon, P.H., The New Archery (1939)Grancsay, S.V., Arms and Armour (1964)Grancsay, S.V., Handbook of Arms and Armour (1930)Grimley, Gordon, The Book of the Bow (1958)Griswold, L., Handicraft – Archery (1942)Hansard, G.A., The Book of Archery (1840)Hewitt, John, Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe, Vols.I, II, III (1855 – 9)Klopsteg, P.E., Bows and Arrows: A Chapter in the Evolution of Archery in America (1863)Klopsteg, P.E., Science Looks at Archery (1934)Laking, Sir Guy, A Record of European Armour and Arms through Seven Centuries (1920 – 2)Longman, C.J.and Walrand, H., Archery (1894)Mann, Sir James, Armour (1962)Mayrich, Sir Samuel Rush, History of Arms and Armour (1824)Murdoch, John, A Study of the Eskimo Bows in the United States National Museum (1884)Myer, Herman, Bows and Arrows in Central Brazil (1896)Nicolle, Patrick, The Book of Armour (1960)Oakeshott, R.Ewart, The Archaeology of Weapons (1960)Pope, Dr.Saxton T., Hunting with the Bow and Arrow (1923)Thompson, M., The Witchery of Archery (1878)Wilbur, C.Martin, History of the Crossbow (1936)Historical SourcesBarbour, J., The Bruce (1909)Barrett, C.R.B., Battles and Battlefields in England (1896)Bryant, Arthur, The Age of Chivalry (1963)Burne, Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred H., The Agincourt War (1956)Burne, Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred H., The Art of War on Land (1944)Burne, Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred H., The Crécy War (1955)Chandler, David Edr., The Battlefields of Europe, Vol.I (1965)Churchill, Sir Winston S., The History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956)Costain, Richard B., The Last of the Plantagenets (1962)Creasy, Sir Edward, Fifteen Decisive Battles (N.D.)Field, Colonel Cyril, Old Times Under Arms (1939)Fortescue, J.W., A History of the British Army, Vol.I (1899)Fox-Davies, A.C, Complete Guide to Heraldry (N.D.)Froissart, Jean, Passages from (Edt.F.T.Marzials) (1900)George, H.B., Battles of English History (N.D.)Grant, James, British Battles on Land and Sea (N.D.)Green, John Richard, A Short History of the English People (1874)Hay, Ian, The King’s Service (1938)Jacob, E.F., The Oxford History of England – the Fifteenth Century (1947)Kelly, F.M.and Schwabe, R., A Short History of Costume and Armour (1931)Kozlenko, William, Men at War (Edt.) (1942)MacKenzie, W.M., The Battle of Bannockburn (1913)MacKenzie, W.M., The Bannockburn Myth (1932)McKisack, May, The Oxford History of England – the Fourteenth Century (1959)Miller, T., The Site of the Battle of Bannockburn (1931)Morris, J.E., ‘The Archers of Crécy’ (in English Historical Review XII) (1897)Morris, J.E., The Welsh Wars of Edward I (1897)Neade, W., Double-Armed Man (pamphlet) (1625)Newhall, Professor R.A., The English Conquest of NormandyNicolas, Sir H., Battle of Agincourt (1827.2nd Edt.1832)Oman, Sir Charles W [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]